The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People will launch a series of radio ads today urging voters in Maryland to support same-sex marriage when it comes on the ballot this Election Day.

Back in May the board of the Baltimore-based organization voted in support of marriage equality, following President Obama’s historical announcement.

The ads feature NAACP chairman emeritus Julian Bond. “I know a little something about fighting for what’s right and just,” he says. “Maryland’s gay and lesbian families share the same values, and they should share in the right to marry.”

In his op-ed for the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Birk wrote, “There is no opposition between providing basic human rights to everyone and preserving marriage as the sacred union of one man and one woman.”

Bond tends to disagree, adding,“I believe people of faith understand this isn’t about any one religious belief – it’s about protecting the civil right to make a lifelong commitment to the person you love.”